My life wants to kill me. Not only did I not get anything done last weekend because of college applications, but it was also the last week of swim, which means extreme stress abounds.
But that's enough about me and how I will have an aneurysm before I'm twenty, let's talk about literature! Hooray! This week, we watched one TED Talk for our tragedy unit and read Antigone by Sophocles, the same author who wrote Oedipus Rex. The TED Talk was about irrationality in our decision making and how much control we really have when making them, which fit in nicely with our wrap-up of Oedipus Rex. In fact, it feels like someone (winkwinknudgenudge) planned it that way. In any case, the TED talk, although focused on irrational behaviors in economic decisions, advanced the questions raised by Sophocles's play: How much of our destiny do we really control? How big of an impact does outside factors make on our daily decisions? In essence, do we control our future, or is our fate completely out of our hands? Like last week's post, I wrote about a lot of these questions in the Blogedy, so you should go read it over there. However, I will say this: I believe the TED Talk really furthered the discussion raised by Oedipus Rex because it brought the questions into the light of the modern world.
The next thing we did was read Antigone, another tragic play by Sophocles. Although I was more familiar with the story of Oedipus, I really, really liked Antigone. The story is about the daughter of Oedipus, Antigone, whose brothers just killed each other in battle. Although the King of Thebes, Creon, decreed that only one of the brothers will be buried properly and the other will be left to rot, Antigone disobeys this order and digs a grave for her forsaken brother. She goes against Creon's law, citing heavenly, "moral" law as her support. She eventually dies (what Greek heroine doesn't?), but not after defending her beliefs and being an all-around kick-butt female character. To be honest, that's probably why I like her so much. She, unlike most women in these tragedies, fights for what she thinks is right. Antigone is willing to go against the dominant power. SHE HAS A BACKBONE! Not even Jocasta, Oedipus's wife, boldly went against him when he was accusing Creon of trying to his throne. In fact, many people interpret Antigone not just as a tragedy, as we are doing in class, but also as a piece on feminism.
Wow, this turned out to be a long post. And I didn't even provide my full interpretations on the subject! So far, I really like what we are doing in the Tragedy Unit; my only issue is that I'm having trouble keeping up with the workload. It might be because Schoenborn is not here. I realize that's no excuse, but it's really hard to get a good discussion going in class without him there. Oh well. I hope he's enjoying his paternity leave! Schoenborn we miss you!
Quote of the Week: “Oh it's terrible when the one who does the judging judges things all wrong.” -Antigone by Sophocles
But that's enough about me and how I will have an aneurysm before I'm twenty, let's talk about literature! Hooray! This week, we watched one TED Talk for our tragedy unit and read Antigone by Sophocles, the same author who wrote Oedipus Rex. The TED Talk was about irrationality in our decision making and how much control we really have when making them, which fit in nicely with our wrap-up of Oedipus Rex. In fact, it feels like someone (winkwinknudgenudge) planned it that way. In any case, the TED talk, although focused on irrational behaviors in economic decisions, advanced the questions raised by Sophocles's play: How much of our destiny do we really control? How big of an impact does outside factors make on our daily decisions? In essence, do we control our future, or is our fate completely out of our hands? Like last week's post, I wrote about a lot of these questions in the Blogedy, so you should go read it over there. However, I will say this: I believe the TED Talk really furthered the discussion raised by Oedipus Rex because it brought the questions into the light of the modern world.
The next thing we did was read Antigone, another tragic play by Sophocles. Although I was more familiar with the story of Oedipus, I really, really liked Antigone. The story is about the daughter of Oedipus, Antigone, whose brothers just killed each other in battle. Although the King of Thebes, Creon, decreed that only one of the brothers will be buried properly and the other will be left to rot, Antigone disobeys this order and digs a grave for her forsaken brother. She goes against Creon's law, citing heavenly, "moral" law as her support. She eventually dies (what Greek heroine doesn't?), but not after defending her beliefs and being an all-around kick-butt female character. To be honest, that's probably why I like her so much. She, unlike most women in these tragedies, fights for what she thinks is right. Antigone is willing to go against the dominant power. SHE HAS A BACKBONE! Not even Jocasta, Oedipus's wife, boldly went against him when he was accusing Creon of trying to his throne. In fact, many people interpret Antigone not just as a tragedy, as we are doing in class, but also as a piece on feminism.
Wow, this turned out to be a long post. And I didn't even provide my full interpretations on the subject! So far, I really like what we are doing in the Tragedy Unit; my only issue is that I'm having trouble keeping up with the workload. It might be because Schoenborn is not here. I realize that's no excuse, but it's really hard to get a good discussion going in class without him there. Oh well. I hope he's enjoying his paternity leave! Schoenborn we miss you!
Quote of the Week: “Oh it's terrible when the one who does the judging judges things all wrong.” -Antigone by Sophocles